I AM afraid that your comments and those of the Council spokesperson re the ice rink are wrong.

Welcome though it is, it is not the first or the only one. This was set up and used outside the Town Hall in Manchester at Christmas 1998 -- together with an artificial ski run. As with so much (the Arndale Centre, St Ann's Square, etc) it is a case of Bolton aping Manchester. The old quip that "when it's 3pm in Manchester, it is 1938 in Bolton" is, sadly, only too true.

Why, though is this?

James Fidler

Blackshaw House

Deane

Bolton